Georgia got it all could possibly have wanted from freshman left-hander Liam Sullivan Friday night against No. 1 Arkansas. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Razorback starting pitcher Patrick Wicklander and closer Kevin Kopps were pretty good themselves, leading the Razorbacks to a 3-0 win.
The Bulldogs actually outhit Arkansas 9-8, including a career-best 4-for-4 evening by Chaney Rogers, but stranded nine base runners.
Sullivan certainly deserved better.
With Ryan Webb pushed to Sunday after leaving last week’s game against Auburn with tightness in his back, Sullivan was thrust into the starting role for Friday’s opener.
Nobody could have predicted the outcome.
Sullivan (1-1) limited the SEC’s top home run team to just three hits, notching 11 strikeouts. That included an “immaculate” fifth inning that saw the former Marist standout strike out the side on a minimum of nine pitches.
"I noticed it when I was walking off the mound, and I realized I did it,” Sullivan said. “That's something nice to do, but it's really not that big of a deal."
Head coach Scott Stricklin was nevertheless impressed.
"He was so good tonight. The scoreboard may have been juiced a little bit. He was 94-95 according to that scoreboard. Wicklander is 92-93-94 normally, and he was sitting 93-95,” head coach Stricklin said. “Sully (Sullivan) was really good, and certainly he has a week ahead of him to work hard and get ready for next weekend. We're really excited about his future. We saw some good things last week against Auburn. He gave us a chance to win in that game, and he deserved a chance to go out there tonight."
His only mistake came in the second inning, when the Razorbacks used a pair of doubles to grab a 1-0 lead.
Sullivan came into Friday’s game with a 1-0 record and a 4.74 ERA. However, those numbers were misleading.
On March 19 against Tennessee, the big lefty allowed six earned runs in just a third of an inning. Take that outing away, and Sullivan’s ERA was 1.97.
"I felt good. My main goal was to throw strikes and give us a chance to win a game. I felt really good in the bullpen,” Sullivan said. “Every pitch I threw felt like I could get someone out with and I just continued that into the game."
Georgia’s bats had ample opportunity to give Sullivan some support against Wicklander.
The Bulldogs (27-17, 10-12) put their first two runners on to start the fourth but failed to score. In the sixth, another runner was stranded at third before Georgia left two more on the bases in the seventh.
Arkansas did not fair any better. In the seventh, the Razorbacks (35-8, 16-6) loaded the bases with nobody out against Jack Gowen before the Bulldog righty wriggled off the hook with no runs scoring to keep the deficit at one.
Unfortunately for Georgia, it did not stay that way. In the eighth, the Razorbacks scored a pair of runs on a two-strike, two-out double off of Collin Caldwell for some big insurance runs.
The Bulldogs would make it interesting in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate. But Kopps would recover, retiring Fernando Gonzalez and Ben Anderson earn his seventh save.
"We had first and second with Connor Tate at the plate and then the call on the check-swing goes against us. I am biased, and it swung the count. That's just the way it goes,” Stricklin said. “Bottom line, they were just a little better than us tonight. We knew our work was cut out for us especially when (Kevin) Kopps came in. He's arguably the best closer in college baseball. We still got a lot of base hits tonight, and Ben Anderson hit one on the screws there at the end."
